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All About Amaro - Our Category Explainer
Amaro—the Italian word for "bitter"—refers to a celebrated category of aromatic, bittersweet liqueurs. Traditionally enjoyed as a pre-dinner aperitivo to stimulate the appetite or a post-meal digestivo to aid digestion, amaro has deep roots in Italian culture. How It’s Made These complex spirits are crafted by macerating or distilling a blend of botanicals—including bitter barks, roots, herbs, citrus peels, and spices—in a base of neutral alcohol, brandy, or wine. After blending, most amari are rested, and some are aged in barrels for months or even years to develop layered complexity. The Flavour Profile While common bittering agents like gentian root, wormwood, and cinchona bark form the foundation, a single recipe can feature anywhere from a handful to over 40 secret ingredients, such as saffron, rhubarb, and mint. Consequently, amaro spans a massive spectrum: alcohol content ranges from 16% to 40% ABV, sweetness moves from syrupy to bone-dry, and flavors shift from bright citrus and florals to deep, medicinal herbs. Amaro vs. Cocktail Bitters While they share a similar botanical DNA, the main difference lies in how they are consumed. Amaro is "potable"—meant to be poured and enjoyed on its own. Cocktail bitters, by contrast, are highly concentrated, high-proof, and designed to be used by the dash. A Rich History Amaro originated in medieval monasteries, where monks formulated secret, alcohol-based tonics using local ingredients—like alpine herbs in the north of Italy or bitter oranges in Sicily—for medicinal use. It wasn't until after World War II that amaro successfully transitioned from a health remedy into the commercial, pleasure-first beverage we love today. The Science of Bitter: Why It Works Humans have a natural, genetic predisposition to avoid bitter flavors. Evolutionarily, we are hardwired to associate bitterness with potential toxicity. Because of this, the moment your brain detects a bitter taste, it triggers a physical defense mechanism: your body immediately kick-starts the digestive system, producing an influx of saliva and gastric juices to process and dispel what you have ingested. It is this exact biological reaction that makes amaro so effective. When consumed before a meal, it awakens the palate and increases appetite; when enjoyed afterward, those same gastric juices help settle the stomach and accelerate digestion. While every amaro recipe is unique, most rely on a core foundation of bittering agents. Here is how the three most common ingredients shape the flavor profile: Gentian Root | Bright, Clean & Earthy - The undisputed backbone of many classic amari, gentian brings a remarkably clean, intensely bitter punch that grounds the lighter, sweeter botanicals in a blend. Wormwood | Musky, Heavy & Herbaceous - Famous for its role in absinthe and vermouth, wormwood offers a deep, heavy bitterness with a distinct, musky herbal aroma that lingers beautifully on the palate. Cinchona Bark | Dry, Woody & Structured - The source of natural quinine, cinchona adds a bone-dry, wood-forward bitterness. It provides excellent structure, preventing the liqueur from feeling overly syrupy or sweet. The Challenge of Classification Categorising amaro is notoriously difficult. Unlike whiskey or tequila, amaro has no strict legal definition or universal production rules. The base liquid can be a neutral grain spirit, grappa, brandy, or wine. Producers are free to use any botanical they choose, and the balance of sweetness and bitterness varies wildly from bottle to bottle. Even the choice of sweetener isn't standard—while sugar is common, honey frequently makes an appearance. Colour is another wild card. While traditional amari get their dark hue from natural caramelisation, popular bottles like Aperol and Campari are artificially coloured. In Italy, these lighter, vibrant expressions are often referred to using the English term "bitter" or "aperitivo bitters" rather than amaro. To help demystify this vast spirit category, we can broadly organize amari into a few core styles. Aperitivo Bitters The defining characteristic here is visual. Instead of the deep, caramel-toned hues of traditional amaro, these are dyed bright orange or red (though historically colored with natural ingredients like cochineal beetles). They are vibrant, punchy, and designed to open a meal. Examples: Campari, Okar Bitter, Esquimalt Bitter Red, Maidenii Roselle, Beechworth Bitters Beetle Juice Light & Citrus Typically hailing from southern Italy where citrus groves thrive, these expressions focus heavily on bright fruit peels. They lean sweeter, offer a gentler bitterness, and are highly approachable for beginners. Examples: Amaro Montenegro, Amaro Nonino, Beechworth Bitters Orchard Alpine Sourced from the high-altitude regions of northern Italy, alpine amari are bracingly bitter and noticeably less sweet. They lean heavily on pine, bark, and mountain herbs, often leaving a cool, mentholated finish on the palate. Examples: Braulio, Alta Verde, Amaro Alpino Cola-esque Produced all over Italy, this balanced, dark, and spice-driven style strikes a crowd-pleasing middle ground between sweetness and bitterness. The unifying trait is a distinct, nostalgic flavour profile reminiscent of cola. Examples: Amaro Averna, Amaro Lucano, Ramazzotti Carciofo (Artichoke) A small but deeply revered niche, carciofo amari are primarily flavored with artichoke leaves or cardoon thistle. Don't expect it to taste like a vegetable side dish, though; it yields a rich, deeply savory, and pleasantly earthy bitterness. Examples: Cynar, Cardamaro Fernet The intense, unapologetic peak of the amaro world. Fernet is aggressively bitter, dark, and viscous. It layers sharp, earthy roots like gentian and Chinese rhubarb with intense, medicinal notes of peppermint, saffron, myrrh, and aloe. Examples: Fernet-Branca, Beechworth Bitters Company Up To Eleven Rabarbaro This style crowns Chinese rhubarb root as its hero ingredient, resulting in a smoky, medicinal, and deeply earthy bitterness. Take note: this is made from a specific dried medicinal root, not the common garden rhubarb stalks used in pies, whose roots and leaves are actually toxic. Examples: Sfumato Rabarbaro, Nardini Rabarbaro, Zucca Check Out Our Full Amaro Range
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Producer Visit: Beechworth Bitters Company
It’s a bright, sunny autumn morning in Beechworth. I'm sitting outside Provenance Restaurant waiting for the owner, Michael Ryan, to arrive. He’s picking me up to take me on a tour of Beechworth Bitters Company, his liqueur & cocktail bitters operation. Very excitingly, I’m getting to ride in what I would call his bitters-mobile, an imported Japanese Kei Truck. Michael arrives, greets me and ducks off into the restaurant to grab some supplies. A hefty bundle of lemongrass and a tub of ginger are hastily stowed in the truck. We head off on our way to the distillery. On the short 10 minute drive, multiple locals warmly wave as they recognise the truck coming past. Once we arrive, Michael opens the wooden double doors to reveal his workspace. The building is tucked into the hillside to protect its contents from sunlight and temperature. To one side, a wall is lined with wire shelves,brimming with an array of bottles, demijohns and jars filled with individual tinctures of botanicals. A veritable liquid library of ingredients. With lemongrass and ginger in hand, Michael gets to work preparing for extraction. While he works, he runs me through the process and answers my questions about production, ingredients and purpose. Below is our conversation edited for clarity and length. Only Bitters: What initially drew you to the world of Bitters & Amari? Michael Ryan: Oh, the first long lockdown. No, the second, I was a bit bored. I’d always wanted to make cocktail bitters and suddenly had the time to. Bitters are just a simple version of amaro really. So I set out making a library of botanicals. Only Bitters: When you’re building a new recipe, do you tend to start with an ingredient and build out from there? Or with a specific end goal already in mind before selecting the ingredients? For the Yuzucello, I thought I needed something that wasn’t an amaro and to showcase the amazing yuzu from Ovens Valley (Mountain Yuzu). I knew I wanted to do a citrus amaro, a red aperitif, a fernet and a richer style. The B8 kind of came out of nowhere. I had always wanted to do a herbal liqueur, partly because the name for it, In The Weeds, came first. Only Bitters: It’s a pretty complex liqueur. How many ingredients have you got going into In The Weeds? Micheal Ryan: Fifty in that one. It’s the most complex, but actually one of the easier ones to make. It’s all maceration at higher alcohol and all fresh. It’s just getting enough botanicals to do it that’s hard. I use it a lot in the bar actually, it’s very handy. Only Bitters: Maceration can be a slow game. How do you decide when the botanic has infused the right amount of flavour into the spirit? Michel Ryan: It really depends on the botanicals, so fresh herbs I’ll do 6 hours maximum, woody herbs like rosemary I’ll let go for a few days. Citrus I used to do citrus for two weeks but now I just leave them in, I don’t find that it pulls out undesirable flavours. Often for herbs, I’ll do a water maceration after the initial one in spirit and then use that to dilute down the first maceration. At this point Michael has finished processing the ginger and lemongrass, blending them down and adding neutral spirit to start the extraction process. He begins to show me through some of the botanicals in the liquid library. There's whole cumquats sitting in large jars, rows upon rows of herbal tinctures, like rivermint, yellowdock, fresh wormwood,nettles and burdock. There are juices of carrot, tomato and bergamot that have been fortified for use in amaro (I wish you could all smell the Bergamot, it's incredible). Yuzu leaf jumps out as a flavour I’m not immediately familiar with. Only Bitters: Can you tell me about the Yuzu leaf? I know what to expect from Yuzu fruit, but I’ve never tried the leaves. Michael Ryan: I’d certainly thought about using it before, but it’s like I’ve got enough, I’ve got 175 ingredients so I don't need anymore. But then I did the Yuzu Leaf and actually, it’s pretty good. It’s fantastic. It tastes like Yuzu, but it’s got that extra layer of herbaceous flavour. I’m using it in the new Vin Amaro that I’m doing. Only Bitters: I had the pleasure of trying some of the new Vin Amaro last night and it was delicious. How did it come about? Michael Ryan: They were doing a Beechworth Chardonnay dinner, it was all chardonnay and I thought “I want to go to that dinner”. They said they needed something to break up the Chardonnay. Only Bitters: Which is a funny thing to say for a planned chardonnay dinner. Michael Ryan: Yeah, Chardonnay at every course but then what do you do for dessert? They gave me the Chardonnay and I played around with it. It was delicious, but hadn’t fermented dry, just too much residual sugar for a wine. Only Bitters: So what flavours are going into the Vin Amaro? Michael Ryan: So there’s green tea from the kiewa valley, yuzu leaf and yuzu rind. I just wanted to use lots of local ingredients. That's when I started using hops too. Only Bitters: Is there an ingredient that you've worked with that had a surprising end result? Michael Ryan: Meadowsweet, it's got a really cola note. So many amaro have that cola note to it, how do I achieve that? Cola is just citrus and spices. (he shows me a particular section of tinctures on the shelf) These are all my witchy herbs here, you know sarsaparilla and hyssop, have I got any Meadowsweet? Yep, this is the meadowsweet... And yeah, you get that real cola, smell. It's also good for colour, as I don’t add any caramel colouring. Michael has finished up and labeled the ginger and lemon grass tinctures. We grab some stock to take back to Provenance for the upcoming evening. There’s a tasting on offer in the upstairs Parlour Amaro Bar that I'm excited for. Check out the notes from the tasting below. Read the full Tasting of Beechworth Bitters Amaro & Liqueur
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Beechworth Bitters Company Tasting with Michael Ryan
Sitting in Parlour Amaro Bar, upstairs from Providence Restaurant in Beechworth, you will find yourself unsurprisingly surrounded by Amaro. The back bar is overflowing with hard to find bottles that you would be hard pressed to find in other places. But the focus for today is owner, MIchael Ryan's own brand, Beechworth Bitters Company. Below are Michaels own descriptions of the bottles as he guides me through a full tasting of the range. Yuzucello "Linden flower, jasmine, lemongrass, osmanthus. So simple compared to the Amaro ingredients. But I just wanted to make something as an approachable point of entry. It’s a delightful flavour. Unlike any cocktail ingredient." Orchard Amaro "So, eleven types of citrus, all local, actually twelve now, because I've got some cinnamon orange. Yep. Some herbal notes from Sage, bay leaf, and parsley. 12 pint sugar. And... 22% of the alcohol. Yep. The least bitter in the lineup. Yep. I said, no caramel, so it's just a natural colour." Beetlejuice "It’s primarily rhubarb, citrus, and green tea. The green tea is a really small part of the recipe, but it really comes through. Yep. Called Beetlejuice, because of the colour of cochineal, of course. In hindsight it is the most expensive way to colour your drink. So I get it from Mexico. But, you know, it's a point of difference. Now, it's called Beetlejuice, so I can't change the formula now." B8 "Tomato, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, celery with Kombu and Koji in it. Smells like soup, it’s quite savoury. Pretty unusual. People either love it or they’re confused by it. Interesting and complex, it goes great with food." Daisy Age "So this is fifteen local flowers (including daisy, violet, magnolia, saffron, jasmine, lavender and elderflower) and unpasteurised honey. It presents sweeter than the others, even though it has the same level of fructose and glucose as the others. I think that honey, it automatically makes you think of sweetness. It has such a big honey nose." In The Weeds "I always wanted to have a herbal liqueur, and the name really came before the recipe. It’s a bit of work, but in a way it's one of the easiest to make as it’s all maceration. Definitely the most complex in terms of flavour though, fifty different ingredients, 45% abv but with much higher sugar." Walk in the Black Forest "So cherry, red fruits, touch of coffee, cocoa, vanilla, aged on oaks. Sweet caramel, rather than sugar, which is, and I used to caramelise my own sugar, but now getting up to caramelising 60 kilos of sugar, it's quite difficult. In the end, the only way I could do it was a small batch, like a kilo here and there. Up to Eleven "The fernet, so four types of mint, douglas fur,blue spruce, which I get from up the road. Low sugar, 6%, higher alcohol at 33% abv. A good lasting bitterness, for a lot of people, it's too bitter." Yet to be released Vin Amaro "Chardonnay is the base, at about 18%. Green tea, Yuzu leaf, Yuzu rind, and hops are the main botanics, but there's quite a lot of other ingredients. And it's quite bitter, it’s that gray line between vermouth and vin amaro."
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